THEMATIC AREAS
Livelihood Development and Food Security
Livelihoods development is key in poverty alleviation. With over half of the country’s population living below the poverty line, the identification and development of various livelihood portfolios of individuals will enhance their potential to be independent and secure sustainable income sources.
Food insecurity is one characteristic feature of poor households in Sierra Leone. The country is generally food poor because it depends on food importation to feed itself. PDO works with farming households, to achieve self-food sufficiency. We hope to provide them with planting materials and tools to produce food for themselves. This will be supported by provision of technical knowledge on farming, and value addition to produce. We believe food availability, accessibility and affordability by everyone is a fundamental human right. Key Objectives Under this thematic area
- Engaging or creating awareness in young people on life supporting skills
- To reduce economic risk due to natural hazards
Child Protection
Cultural norms in Sierra Leone place children at the receiving end of instructions and decisions. In other words, they are to be seen not to be heard. Thus, their rights and their entitlements are denied. These imbalances deny children their full potential and the enjoyment of their human rights.
Despite significant normative advances in the Sierra Leone law books, progress towards achieving protection for children in homes, community, and school, remains uneven and slow. At home they suffer domestic violence; exposed to child labour; they suffer neglect, and some are prevented from attending school. In schools they suffer bullying and corporal punishment which reduces their confidence and result in under-performance and school dropout.. Children need to be loved, appreciated, encouraged and provided for both in and out of school. PDO takes an advocacy role, in addition to other approaches. The following are key objectives.
- Raising awareness of children’s rights
- Providing legal assistance for children in conflict or suffering from abuse
- Promoting recreational opportunities for children
Women’s Empowerment
Statistics show that over half (51.4 %) (SSL, 2015) of the country’s population is women, who unfortunately are marginalized. In rural areas, female headed households are poorer than their male counterparts. They provide food for the household but have restriction in accessing and owning land.
Despite a call for 30 percent quota in politics, this figure is farfetched. They continue to be underrepresented in elective and appointive positions. They continue to face violence in homes and possibility of addressing such violations is limited. The factors implicated in these are embedded in customary, constitutional and religious laws. Cultural norms place women, youths and children at the receiving end of instructions. In other words, they are to be seen not to be heard. Thus, their rights and their entitlements are denied. These imbalances deny women and girls their full potential and the enjoyment of human rights, and they represent losses for the entire world.
Despite significant normative advances in the Sierra Leone law books, progress for women and girls remains uneven and slow. This is observed in the political, landscape, school enrolment, labour market etc. Our interventions in communities have shown that it is not only affecting decision making at household level but creating food insecurity and slow progress in moving out of poverty.
Our goal is to address the root causes of violence against women and promoting women’s economic empowerment. The approach in this strategy is to proffer economic opportunities for women and women’s groups, whilst providing awareness on their rights in society. We intend addressing these through the following objectives.
- Raise awareness on Gender Based Violence (GBV) in communities
- Promoting women’s leadership and participation in development
- Support women’s group to undertake small scale business enterprise and Village Saving Loan Activities (VSLA)
Education
The country experienced an overall progress in access to education in the last decade. More and more children enrolled at every level. However, still many children do not start primary schooling at the official age of 6 years and too many of official primary school age are out of school (estimates vary but are approximately 10% 3). Our focus will be those who are in school and those who never made it to schools, those who are excluded because of gender, ethnicity, religious, age, poverty and socio-economic status, and linguistic background.
We will particularly encourage girl-child education. The promotion of girl-child education in our operational areas has policy direction. Our strength lies in unique and direct links with previous and present governments (through the Ministry of Education), funding partners and a wide array of education stakeholders.
It is our belief that if quality education for all is to be a reality, gender equity and equality issues must remain a priority in Sierra Leone. As it is commonly said, if you educate a girl, you educate a nation. This gender-responsive approach therefore benefits not just girls, but also helps to increase educational quality not only in the communities but the country as a whole.
Another challenge in the country’s educational achievement is the completion rate at school level. The percentages of completion vary between boys and girls, and at primary and secondary school levels. Girls record lover completion rate at all levels compared to boys. We hope to address the following objectives.
- To increase access to, and retention in inclusive education with special focus on the girl child
- To increase pupils performance in class and public exams
Health and Human Security
The health system in Sierra Leone is comprised of public and private services that operate on either profit or non-for-profit basis. Government run public services account for approximately 80% of health service utilization. It has the mandate to develop and implement policies and programmes as well as undertake other necessary actions that will strengthen the national health system to deliver effective, efficient, quality and affordable health services that foster improved health status of Sierra Leoneans. Two variables that are historically associated with the health sector are poverty and illiteracy.
Generally, the country’s poor health status is characterized by high disease burden from mainly environmental related communicable diseases aggravated by poor nutrition. The inadequacies in the health system are clearly evident in not only in urban areas but in rural areas. Accessibility, affordability and availability are all challenges the health sector faces. For people to feel protected and empowered, access to basic health care and health services is one of the Strategies. Little safe water is supplied. Water and sanitation infrastructure is inadequate, as are hygiene practices in homes, schools and health facilities.
Our interventions will be one of advocacy, provision, collaboration, networking and dialogue. We intend focusing on children in school and general hygienic conditions in communities. To do this, our approach will be on WASH programme.
- Improving on water facilities and latrines/toilets for community use
- Increase awareness on health-related diseases, and provide adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene support